Wallace LEAD Team Meeting

WALLACE LEAD TEAM MEETING Wallace LEAD Team Notes Monday, April 18, 2005

Each region shared their March 28th Wallace Events:

• South region had a two-hour presentation at South Eugene High on the Achievement Gap presented by George Russell. After the presentation each school met and did a debrief activity. All administrators and staff participated. One unique aspect was the use of questions and “clickers,” the personal response pads.
• Sheldon region had an all day workshop with Gary Howard on Multicultural Issues and Diversity.
• Churchill region had a half-day workshop with Tom Henry presenting on the Achievement Gap and the McCornack team presenting the Ruby Payne Poverty workshop.
• North region schools had professional development at their buildings

Discussion followed on the importance of relating the goals of Wallace LEAD and the Superintendent and the Board Goals. Ideas were shared on how this might be done more effectively. There is still a lot of work to do to ensure that all staff make the connection.

The four regional budgets were shared. Each region was asked to review their budget and let Kay know if any of the items should not be charged to their account. She will follow up with Mary Beth.

Phil shared questions that could be used in a survey to check the effectiveness of professional development. Phil working with Kay Mehas and Kay Graham will bring a draft survey back to the group at our next meeting.

Professional Development was discussed for the summer and the 2005-06 school year. Summer plans already in place include a K-8 Administrator Retreat, August 17-18-19, and the FIPSE Grant, August 11-12.

Ideas were shared about professional development for K-12 Learning Communities and the district LEAD funds. Many felt a more clear focus would be very important for this coming year. Many ideas were shared such as having a retreat on the October Teacher Inservice Day where all administrators meet at a location such as the Basketball Camp and plan time to have regional work and district wide topics. One idea was to concentrate on differentiated instruction as it relates to literacy and cultural competence and impacts the classroom directly. Many supported this idea. The format used for SREB was suggested as a great way to present information: the presenting of information to a team, the team going back to their school and working with the information gained, the team returning to a second session at which they present what they learned and how the information was applied and also learn more to go back to their schools and apply. Another format mentioned was ongoing monthly training for building teams or specific teachers that could go back to their schools as a resource, much like the trainer of trainers model Bette organized three years ago.

LEAD team members were asked to think about other possible scenarios for professional development and to call or email Kay prior to May 11th. By the first of May, Kay will email a list of potential ideas to all LEAD team members.
One question was asked, "What behaviors would a principal observe or a teacher show if they are becoming culturally competent?” Terry Leary will be asked to work with the team on the answer to this question.

A reminder: Wallace goals need to be shared with building staff and at site councils. This would be a good time to share what has happened at the SREB workshops if a team attended from your school.
In order to have a clear focus, it was recommended that after meetings the key points that need to be shared with all staff be presented precisely.

LEAD team members will discuss the following at their regional meetings:

• Professional development ideas for summer and the 2005-06 school year.
• Encourage and remind building administrators to share the goals of Wallace and the superintendent and Board at staff meetings and site councils, i.e., if a team attended one of the SREB workshops talk and discuss.